Welcome to my world of art and illustration.It's in swedish, it's in english, it's in swenglish. Pictures are my main language.

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I like my work as an illustrator and I love being a painter. Of course there is a little of me in my illustrations but working as a freelance illustrator means taking your clients needs and demands into consideration.

Painting (and drawing) is something I do whether there is money in the end or not. One might think there is an easy transition going from illustrating to painting. It can be, regarding the material, but the mind needs some time to free itself from “doing-good- getting-paid-state-of-mind”. So what do I do. I paint a face. Again. The same thing I do when I want to use up the left over paint on my palette. And as in the three dimensional world. Faces don’t repeat themselves. There is always a first time for every face.

Session is over. A painting is finished. And as always I have squirted out too much paint on my palette. Cadmium red, yellow ochre, burnt sienna and preussisk bleu. I can’t just leave these little piles of paint and go home and cook dinner. Dinner has to wait. My art teacher at The Colorado Institute of Art once said. “Being a little hungry is good for creativity”. One must assume she was just preparing us for the real world out there.

Anyway. There is always time for another face. Grabbing hold of a scrap piece of canvas. Stapling in corners onto board. Bam, bam, bam, bam. And as always, painting flows easily, no hesitation of which color to use, my hand and paintbrush seem to have a mutual understanding. I am just tagging along for the ride. And maybe, just maybe my art teacher was right. At least I stopped thinking about dinner.

I walked into a big department store here in Sweden yesterday. First I get all exited. So much nice looking stuff. Smart gadgets, pretty clothes, shiny kitchen supplies, stylish make up, little things here and there that I – don’t need. Not at all.

I believe in small scale productions, locally made things, unique, one of a kind handcrafted pieces or wearing out clothes instead of just wearing clothes. Mending, fixing, handing down, reading a book, have a coffee or just do anything that doesn’t mean buying another cheap item that will not last for long. I don’t always manage to live by my own conviction but I try. When I steer off my environmental track once in a while I try to get back on the conscious track as soon as I can. Bye smart, buy quality, buy second hand. Less but better, more unique and maybe Black Friday will just vanish into a black hole.

When I paint people a personality behind the faces emerge. Unintentionally a little story tells me why and what I need to include or exclude in a painting. I tend to exclude more than I include but even so, in my head I have the full story.

The Swedish summer this year was cold. My sleeveless dress on the closet door was ready to be worn but it waited in vain. The few hot summer days we had I managed to be away at even colder places.

The dress never got used. But it did give me an idea to do some paintings. Can you tell a personality of the owner of a dress by the way I paint it? By approaching the tree canvases in different manners I aimed to show a personality behind it.

From left to right: Order or Chaos. Life is simple. It is what it is.

Size 92×73 cm. Mixed media on canvas. Deep edge.

Order or chaos. Mixed media on canvas. 92×73 cm. Deep edge.

Life is simple. Mixed media on canvas. 92×73 cm. Deep edge.

It is what it is. Mixed media on canvas. 92×73 cm. Deep edge.

When I paint people a personality behind the faces emerge. Unintentionally a little story tells me why and what I need to include or exclude in a painting. I tend to exclude more than I include but even so, in my head I have the full story.

The Swedish summer this year was cold. My sleeveless dress on the closet door was ready to be worn but it waited in vain. The few hot summer days we had I managed to be away at even colder places.

The dress never got used. But it did give me an idea to do some paintings. Can you tell a personality of the owner of a dress by the way I paint it? By approaching the tree canvases in different manners I aimed to show a personality behind it.

Angels and softness. I start working with brushes, with colors on the palette that I like. Slowly the image emerges and as I go along with it, I get a sudden urge of what the painting needs. A different approach. More life. This is not a still life. It needs motion. It needs a credit card, (old one:-) to move around the paint so that something happens. It is not a still life. It is life. And in real life one definitely needs a credit card. To buy some fresh flowers on a friday.

Like this:

… with my thoughts.

I am a slow thinker. Not mainly because I don’t have the capacity to think fast. It is just a little crowded in there so each new spark of a thought has a hell of a job to get to the finish line. And when that happens everybody left and I have no one to share my thoughts with.

Title of painting: I was left alone, and thought that I first and foremost should find out where _ _ _ _ was going. (Oil on canvas, 40x40cm)

Pitch black outside the window. Daytime, grey sky. The nature vaugely showing of a distinct color. The cold air leaving skin and lips in a pale purple tone. Everything outside is turned down.

So what do I paint? Lavish green landscape with bright red flowers and orange, yellow flower buds full of promise! Colors madly running over the canvas.

Nope.

I paint what I am in.

The dark.

And enjoying it. There is a huge variety of values to be found in a toned down painting. As most swedes do when the dark season is over us we go inside and so do my manner of painting. It is still life.